To dramatically ease you into the history of such violence that brought about such intricate art and literature, please view the following clip:
As the Empire grew, it engulfed more and more countries and within its belly were many different peoples and its traditions, languages and cultures. This is why it's hard to determine just exactly who the Byzantines were. However, one of the strongest and most populated peoples were Greeks and they're often attributed as the contributors to the Byzantine culture, especially its religion, language and literature. Since the hold of religion was so great, majority of the literary works are of religious origin. Of the approximately 2000-3000 volumes of Byzantine literature that survive, only just over 300 consist of secular poetry, history, science and pseudo-science. Byzantine literature is often divided into 5 groups: historians and analysts, encyclopaedists and essayists, and writers of secular poetry, ecclesiastical and theological literature, and popular poetry.
Imagine the mayhem and confusion and the fight for cultural survival, when at the height of its power, under the rule of Justinian I in 550, the Empire reached its geographical limit. Encompassing what are now 33 separate countries, 33 separate languages, 33 separate cultures, the Empire was all powerful. The Greeks, the Romans, the Slavs, the Arabs all mixed in as one. The Byzantine Empire used to be what are countries now known as: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Georgia, Greece, Gibraltar, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Vatican City.
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| The far reaching hands of the Byzantine Empire at its most powerful in 550. |
After continuous wars and attacks and loss of soldiers from all sides, the great Byzantine Empire could not hold on any longer. And so, under the last Emperor, Constantine XI, and the under the attack of the new emerging Ottoman Empire, on 29 May 1453, Byzantine Empire succumbed under its last effort and breath to save itself. And so, as all great empires rise and fall, the Byzantine Empire fell, and the Ottoman Empire rose from its ashes.
Reflection:
This week I didn't really have that much trouble finding information on just the basic history of the Byzantine Empire. I searched it through google and found plenty of information. I also searched my library for books for the Byzantine Empire and found a couple. I wanted to include something to stimulate the visual and audio receptors so I found a YouTube clip that fit that. The only trouble I had was probably just narrowing down the exact date the Empire arose, since that's rather tricky to pinpoint it exactly.
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